Passion Raga Novel (Completed) - Chapter 76

Ling Xinlu took the paper, looking at Yuri with disbelief, as if he might wake from a dream. Yuri extended the paper to him again, motioning for him to take it.

“I wanted to give it to you before midnight, but it’s not too late even now, is it?”

“Aren’t you going back?”

At Ling Xinlu’s faint question, this time Yuri made a strange face.

“Why would you think I’d go?”

“You said you’d go back. You said the contract was over, so you’d go back anyway, and you’d go back quickly. You said you’d go tomorrow morning.”

Ling Xinlu said only those words in a voice tinged with faint unease, then fell silent, as if he regretted even saying that much.

Yuri blinked, staring at him. He watched him silently for a long time before frowning slightly.

The memory of saying such things immediately came to mind. It wasn’t something he had said to Ling Xinlu, nor had he meant it in the way Ling Xinlu understood, but Yuri had indeed uttered those words. But then…

“Have you been outside all this time?”

Even though the weather had warmed, mornings and evenings were still chilly. Had he been standing alone in the hallway guarding the door all night? Yuri frowned slightly, glaring at Ling Xinlu with a bewildered expression.

Then he sighed. He looked down at the contract, which still hadn’t passed from his hand to Ling Xinlu’s, then offered it again.

“You’ll have to stay here from now on, so you should go back to your house in Germany and sort things out there.”

Ling Xinlu looked at Yuri, who spoke calmly.

Gradually, his face took on a strange light. It was a mix of emotions: doubt, anxiety, and joy, all intertwined.

Yuri stretched his arm beside him and opened the main door. He pointed to the huge bouquet still abandoned outside the door and asked Ling Xinlu, “Is this for me?” Without waiting for an answer, he gathered it into his arms and carried it inside.

Clutching the enormous bouquet that barely fit through the doorway, he waddled unsteadily, groping blindly ahead as he headed for the living room.

Ling Xinlu, who had been standing stiffly watching Yuri, followed him inside.

Where should he put this bouquet? There was no vase in the house large enough to hold such a massive arrangement.

In the end, only the bathtub would do.

Yuri recalled the old bouquet that had once beautifully decorated the bathtub, and looked at this new one, several times larger and more splendid than the last.

Had Ling Xinlu been so excited to buy something like this? With a huge expectation as big as this immense bouquet, and an equally great anxiety.

And crushed by that enormous anxiety, what had he been thinking, crouching and blocking the door outside?

Yuri looked at the huge bouquet placed in the middle of the living room, then turned his gaze to Ling Xinlu.

With one hand, he tightly clutched the contract, as if he would never let go, and had been staring only at Yuri since before.

“I’ll go back, sort things out, and then I’ll come.”

“You’ll really come, right?”

At Ling Xinlu’s low-voiced re-question, Yuri nodded. Only after confirming that answer, which was casual yet not light, as if stating the obvious, did the tension in Ling Xinlu’s white-knuckled fist relax ever so slightly.

His face, which had seemed about to burst with anxiety, momentarily contorted as if he was about to cry, but he bit his lip and held back his tears.

Yuri smiled bitterly to himself, thinking that even if he had already cried so much, his face wouldn’t look calm now, trying to hold back.

This man was adorable. So beautiful, so lovely, so overwhelmingly adorable he couldn’t bear it.

“And that contract,”

Yuri gestured with his eyes towards the contract in Ling Xinlu’s hand. Yuri stopped speaking midway and fell silent, and Ling Xinlu looked down at the contract, waiting for him to continue.

“If you no longer need water—if you no longer need me,”

As Yuri spoke, Ling Xinlu, who had been quietly watching him, his eyes flickering with a hint of anger, still remained silent, listening to the rest of his words.

“Then let’s terminate that contract, please do that.”

Yuri calmly said that much, then fell silent, waiting for Ling Xinlu’s answer.

And Ling Xinlu, who had been seriously listening to every word of Yuri’s, replied readily as soon as Yuri finished speaking, as if he didn’t need to think for long.

“As much as you want. But in return…”

“Unless that happens, you’ll stay by my side. And you’ll try, just as I said.”

Yuri opened his mouth slightly but couldn’t answer.

It wasn’t because he didn’t want to. Yuri had already thought he would do so when he handed that contract to Ling Xinlu.

But he couldn’t answer immediately because he thought it would take a long time. Because he thought Ling Xinlu would have to wait for a long time.

Ling Xinlu, who had concluded his words resolutely, saw Yuri hesitate to answer and his expression clouded. His voice dropped a little.

“It’s okay if it takes a long time. We have forever, after all, so it’s fine if it takes a long time. I can keep waiting until then. So, please like me.”

“Please like me,” he added stubbornly, but then his voice blurred slightly with a lack of confidence, and his words trembled. Yuri continued to look at him for a long time.

It was strange. How could this astute and intelligent man not know? He was so adorable. Yuri would certainly try his best not to cause him any hardship or pain.

Yuri nodded. Ling Xinlu, who had not taken his eyes off Yuri, saw his answer and pressed his lips tightly together.

Again, as if he might cry, but forcibly holding back as if crying would make him look ugly.

Yuri quietly smiled, seeing all of Ling Xinlu’s expressions—whether he cried, laughed, or got angry—as beautiful.

It was true. No matter what expression Ling Xinlu wore, Yuri found all of them beautiful.

So, facing this adorable person, Yuri couldn’t help but let his composed expression soften slightly and laugh for a long time.

He didn’t even notice Ling Xinlu staring intently at him without blinking.

“When are you coming back after you go?”

While Yuri was filling the bathtub to immerse the bouquet, Ling Xinlu, who had been standing on the bathroom doorway, quietly watching Yuri, suddenly asked.

Yuri unwrapped the bouquet, giving the flowers ample space, then turned to him.

“Well, I’m not sure how long it will take to tidy everything up.”

Yuri tilted his head, answering vaguely.

The apartment, which might take the longest to sort out, he had already entrusted to a real estate agent through James, so he didn’t have to worry. But sorting out a place where he had lived for a long time would subtly involve a lot of work.

He planned to hire people for tasks that seemed like they would take too long, but how long would it take to finish the minor things he had to do himself?

He intended to hurry as much as possible, but he couldn’t get a precise sense of how long it would be.

Ling Xinlu stared intently at Yuri’s lips.

His eyes were tense, like a patient awaiting a doctor’s prognosis, wondering how long Yuri would say he would be gone.

Yuri replied “Well,” once more. He also didn’t intend to stay long. Once he finished what needed to be done, he planned to return on a night flight, or any flight that would get him back an hour sooner.

“Right, then,”

Yuri placed the bouquet in the now sufficiently filled bathtub. The enormous bouquet filled the tub, as if a flower garden had bloomed in the bathroom.

Yuri looked at the beautiful garden with loving eyes.

“I’ll be back before these flowers wither.”

After answering that, Yuri watched the flowers for a moment longer, then turned and said, “Thank you for the flowers,” belatedly to Ling Xinlu before leaving the bathroom.

Ling Xinlu, left behind, glanced at the flowers filling the bathtub.

His gaze darkened as he looked at the flowers, mixed with countless budding blossoms that were just beginning to open.

The bouquet, which he had specifically chosen to be the most luscious, beautiful, and long-lasting because it was for the most precious person, was incredibly fresh. It seemed they would last a long, long time before withering.

Should he pull the bathtub plug? He leaned over and looked into the tub, but the bottom of the tub was hidden by the flowers.

Behind Ling Xinlu, who was silently staring at the flowers, lost in thought, Yuri returned from the room with something. He sprinkled a few small pills evenly into the bathtub. Then, seeing Ling Xinlu look at him quizzically, he smiled and replied, “It’s aspirin. I heard that if you put flowers in water with dissolved aspirin, they stay fresh longer.”

Yuri wished for the bouquet he received from Ling Xinlu to stay fresh for as long as possible, but he was unaware of Ling Xinlu’s resentful gaze glaring at him from behind.

It would be a long, long time before Yuri would reflect on this moment, hearing Ling Xinlu say, “That was the first time I truly and seriously resented Mr. Gable.”